Monday, April 23, 2007

I did a post ONLY a month ago announcing the 94th Murder here in my fair city of brotherly love (see- Back to Basics), well with the 11 murders that took place over the weekend we're at 127 for the year.

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SEVEN MURDERS = 127 MURDERS = 31.75 MURDERS PER MONTH = 7.9 MURDERS PER WEEK = 1.1 MURDERS PER DAY (with only 28 days being in February and 6 days left in April...well you do the rest of the math)

Who is made to suffer through these ordeals... WE, US AND OUR CHILDREN, but we have the idiotic audacity to support and promote campaigns and slogans like STOP SNITICHING!!!

There are those who don't hold or subscribe to the idiology that in order to have unity within the black community we must NOTconform, NOTreform and NOTalign with the police and any other government official aka DA MAN, but even those conformist, reformist, 'I love everybody and just want peace' CAN'T seem to find there way to the mic to speak in it. NOBODY'S TELLING ANYTHING! Yeah, I'm sure out of fear, but probable the more widely used reason most Black people keep quite is because 'It's not MY BIZNESS'... well anytime a 30something year old man can be struck and KILLED by a bullet coming through his BEDROOM window on a Sunday afternoon (Easter Sunday) while he's getting ready for WORK, SOMEBODY had betta make it their BUSINESS.

Gone are the days were the victims are gangbangers, street runners, huslers, hookers, addicts, and crooks...the victims are 13 year old girls walking to the corner store at 7:00 pm to get a loaf of bread...the victims are 12 year old boys sticking their key in the door at 3:30 after a long day at school...the victims are so average, so innocent, so daily. There is no place to hide, no extra precaution to take, no previsions to make...you're just dead by chance and the chances have become as slim as those old virginia cigaretts.

WE, US, THE BLACK COMMUNITY have to care enough to make it our BUSINESS. We've got to start TELLING when we see and KNOW of criminal activity going on in our FACE, because the fool pulling the trigger don't give a damn that you didn't tell on him the LAST time...it's YOU or YOURS THIS time...so what are you gonna do about it.

5 comments:

Tanya, this was the most eloquent public service announcement that I have ever seen.

I loved it. I'm sorry that you live in a city with so much going on---but I'm so very glad that you have the courage, intelligence and the voice to start making the changes world wide via your blog as a public forum.

Excellent post, and you are so right! Black on Black crime is at it's all-time high, and it's not because of gang wars, or neighborhood beefs, most the times, not even robberies, just a bunch of senseless killings, and a lost of so many innocents. I feel ya on this.

Nice piece again lady. You know this campaign about stop snitching is laughable. I have a few people who work in so-called law enforcement and they all say the 90 percent of criminals get caught because people ARE SNITCHING. We have become so marginalized as afrikans living in amerika and the diaspora that we have allowed every type of person to manipulate our familial structure. The only problem I have with the snitching epidemic is that WE are not handling our own people. WE allow others to dictate their fortune or misfortune for that matter. The Chinese have their own policing in China town. This way of governing, in my opinion, would set examples for perpetrators within the community who may want to get out of line and go against the foundation that we have set for ourselves and our families in the afrikan communities across amerika. People will think twice if we dealt with them accordingly.We should never let the enemy deal with our own. Let's create mechanisms to deal with our own. Peace

City of brotherly love my ass! excuse the french. And,I'm sure almost positive that the 127 is wrong there are a few murders that hasn't been noted. There was a lady riding home and was shot in the head by a stray bullet. And everyday I say that could have been me. So, yes I agree if you know something say something. Send a singing telegram, a messenger pigeon, morris code, SOS, whisper it. I don't give a damn what you do but just do it. Because you never know if you are going to be # 128!

DC: WHY THANK YOU SIR... I was born to speak...I cheat myself by being quiet.. LOL. Yes, I'm sorry that I live here but (for that reason, but then again) there's always something about disorder, it brings the joy of ORDER. thanks buddy.

Miz: THANK YOU LADY, and YES... when will it end...when we're ALL dead, this madness has got to stop! It's to the point where I tell my sons to pay attention when sitting in the living room watching tv (in case a bullet comes through the window)

Anon: I'M SOOOOO with you on the 'WE handling our own people'...they will fear know we're NOT tolerating it. There was a part in Fredrick Douglas' Narrative that talked about a freed slave who threatened to expose a runaway slave to the authorities (WHEN SNITICHING GOES WRONG), well when the rest of the Black community heard about it they called an EMERGENCY meeting at the local church and once the 'Perp' was in attendence they threatened to do him some bodily harm for such an act of treason again his own...out of fear the man left town. NOW, if they can consider ONE , SOLITARY act to be a cause for an EMERGENCY meeting... need I say that the level of urgency to todays matter is immeasurable.